To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.

I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.

Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.

There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.

It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.